I want to take some pictures of the eclipse this August, but I don't have a good setup for doing that. The last time I did anything like this, I used my trusty Olympus OM-1 film camera. Unfortunately the accessories I have are not compatible with today's point and shoot digital cameras. I could buy a digital SLR, but they are pricey. I needed to come up with a solution that didn't break the bank. So I made up a camera adapter to utilize as much of my old equipment as possible. In this case, my Orion eyepiece projection unit, and my trusty 80 mm ST-80 scope.
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This year, my theme is "Old and New School Electronics". I am displaying/demonstrating various electronic projects using old school (i.e., tubes) and new school (such as Arduino etc.) technologies. Some items on exhibit will be a reverse geocache box, 3D printer, homemade tube guitar amplifier, Arduino powered astronomical clock that shows the current view of the heavens.
For good measure, I also brought my Henry Ford 1st Engine replica. Had a fantastic weekend in Toronto displaying and demonstrating my homemade replica of Henry Ford's first gasoline engine at the Maker Festival Toronto. We had perfect weather for it. Many people stopped by to see how one could make an engine out of plumbing parts. Had to tighten down some loose screws, and clean some debris out my intake valve, but other than that, the engine performed well. Had Nyssa as my sidekick both days, and on Sunday my friend Clayton, joined me as well. Came across lots of interesting people and exchanged some ideas for new projects. Even met a guy that did some metal casting using 3D printed patterns (to make moulds). He made this tiny owl which looked fantastic in aluminium. I definitely have to get my foundry up and running so I can make lots of other cool stuff. All and all it was well worth the time and effort to be a part of this community of makers.
Tonight I finally got the HF1E to run! Turned out the problem was that I did not have the timing advanced enough for it to work properly. Here is a short video of it running. Enjoy. Did a bit more work on the HF1E tonight. Raised the combustion chamber about a 1/16" so that the connecting rod is better centered in cylinder as it was scraping a bit on the top during part of the stroke. Then I removed the intake valve and filled the cap with lead. These two things didn't seem to help much. For some reason the engine doesn't ignite on every stroke, but every other stroke, or less. Maybe I have to play around more with the spark timing.
Today I finished up on the mechanical aspects of my replica of Henry Ford's first engine. The last things on my list were to install the valve lifter (tapper) and the piston ring. Now all that remains to to work on the electrical parts.
Today I finished up machining the piston. This was by far the most complicated and nerve wracking part to make. Lots of tricky operations and lots of opportunity for bozo moves! Any one of them would have set me back to starting with a new piece of round stock. A few times I got stumped for a bit while I figured out how to proceed. Fortunately I think I have succeeded on the first try.
I am almost done. All that remains is to construct the valve actuator (tapper) and to finish work on the wooden base. Last Friday, I took sent DXF files of the cam and the crank arm to a local firm that has a water-jet cutter. Today I got them back and they look fantastic. It cost me about $50 to do, but it saved me a lot of time I otherwise would have had to spend to make the parts by hand. The holes needed a bit of reaming and one of them needed to be threaded, but other than that, there was little I had to do to them.
Today I finished up work on the main bearing frame. I also cut the key-ways on the crank shaft for the 30 tooth gear and the crank handle. Then I pressed the shaft onto the flywheel. I had to make a shim to allow the flywheel to fit to the 5/8-inch diameter shaft.
After that was done, I test assembled the components on a scrap piece of wood just to see what she would look like. See picture below. Today I worked on building the crankshaft frame. This took a full day to make, but I managed to do it without any bozo moves. With this done, all that remains is to:
For these last two items I decided to get them cut with a water-jet at a local metal supply place. Hopefully this is not too expensive. They could not give me an exact price at the time. |
AuthorCharles Baetsen holds a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Archives
February 2024
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